Car window-shooting vandals caught on video

Vandals using BB guns to shoot out the windows of cars in dozens of incidents since December in Castro Valley, San Leandro and San Lorenzo have caused as much as $100,000 in damage, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

More than 120 cars have been damaged by the persistent vandals, most recently at about 1:45 a.m. Wednesday when the windows of eight cars were blown out in the 14200 block of Santiago Road in San Leandro, police said.

The attacks happen at night when residents are asleep. Residents don’t usually hear the BB guns go off and just wake up to find their windows shattered, Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said.

Some of the attacks have been captured on surveillance video and investigators are working to track down the suspects in the videos. In one of the videos, the occupants of a dark four-door vehicle with chrome wheels, possibly a Lexus, are seen shooting at cars as they drive down the street, police said.

In another video, a vehicle that could be a 2000 silver Toyota 4Runner with black off-road wheels and tires did the same thing.

Police also have obtained a video of a suspect getting out of a vehicle and shooting at cars from the street. The suspect was described as a white male in his late teens or early 20s wearing a light-colored sweatshirt, dark jeans and athletic shoes.

Right now, investigators are working under the assumption that the attacks are related.

Kelly said:

“It’s too coincidental to have this spate of vandalism with such a distinctive targeting of vehicle glass. … With so many in such a short period of time, it would lead us to conclude it was all related.”

Anyone with information about the vandalism, particularly anyone with surveillance video of the suspects, has been asked to contact the sheriff’s office at (510) 272-6878 or San Leandro police at (510) 577-2740.